Easter Fun At Grandma Rose's

Kate's Science Fair Project

Kate is such an interesting child. She is sweet, thoughtful, deeply caring, sensitive, smart, quirky, and unique. She recently decided to research "brain freeze" for her school science fair project. After some research and study she was able to focus in on the question "Does brain freeze go away faster if you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth?" An incredible local frozen yogurt store called "Kiwi Loco" let her come to their store one night last week and subject willing customers to "brain freeze". They donated 50 little cups of yogurt and even posted a Facebook invitation to help her out. Talk about generous and supportive. Wow!! We are so grateful! Her science fair is next week, but we though you might enjoy seeing some of her pictures...

Something About Being the Youngest...

Are your youngest kids just hilarious? Something about feeling SO very sure of yourself and your place at the very center of the universe gives you the freedom to be ... I don't know ... larger than life, I guess. Jack is developing more and more a sense of humor, and loves to make everyone else laugh. He is starting to understand puns and double meanings, and gets a kick out of the silly things that little boys get a kick out of (like bodily functions). Truly, he is the sun in my universe on many days! Here's one of the many conversations that illustrate why:

Jack: Kate, quit tracing me... (said in a rather annoyed voice)

Kate: I'm not tracing you (i.e., what the heck are you talking about?)

Jack: I mean, quit COPYING me!

Love, love, love how a five year old's mind works. :)

Here are just a couple of cute moments I've caught him in during the past couple of months.

* One is him grabbing a quick drink from the bathroom faucet, sans cup --

* Another is after a long day of play, he literally collapsed in a heap on my bed with his hat still perched on his head. He didn't even wake up when I put his jammies on him.

* The last few are of another sleepy moment that started out as the scare of my life... I hadn't seen him for a while so I went looking for him. I called his name, yelled outside, walked through the house, walked around the block, checked the backyard, ran through the house yelling his name, panicked, panicked a little more, stopped, said a prayer, calmed down, and noticed him in the corner, tucked between his train table and the wall, fast asleep -- as calm as you please. What a turkey!

My baby is 5

Life will soon be very different as I send my baby boy out the door for school next year. It's hard to believe that he's already 5. He is such a tiny little bean that I still carry him around like I did when he was two. I will truly, madly, deeply miss these days of my life. He has been a joy -- and well worth any effort it took to get him here.

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State Champ!

Todd returned from a very successful State TSA (Technology Student Association) Competition last Saturday afternoon. It was a long 3 days for us while he was gone -- hard to believe our boy is old enough to be away from home overnight without Mom and Dad. We were worried, but thankful for the comfort provided by Heavenly Father through a priesthood blessing. Todd is such a good boy, and we're thankful that he has the desire to be faithful and stand for truth and righteousness. It's not easy in this day and age -- but he's trying hard.

Thanks to a great Tech advisor, and many long hours after school, Todd came away with the Gold Medal and 1st place in the State of Idaho in the CO2 car competition. Each entrant (ages 12-18) designed and constructed their own CO2 car to exacting specifications (think Pinewood Derby, but really, really fast and a little out of control!). They raced their cars in heats and at the end of the day Todd emerged as champion. He is invited to attend the national competition in Texas -- we'll have to see about that! At any rate, he was pretty excited to have beat high schoolers! His team was the youngest one there -- the rest of the kids were from jr. highs or high schools. Many of his teammates did great as well. They swept the medals in the CO2 races and the flight challenge. Todd won a bronze in that. The flight challenge requires the student to design, cut out, and construct a balsa wood glider and then fly it, in the hopes it outperforms everyone else's. He was very surprised to have placed. We're SO proud of him and his hard work. He has learned a lot this year about the importance of precision and taking your time. Both lessons he needed to learn! It's so much better when it comes from someone besides Mom and Dad! Thanks Mr. Buck!

Don't Tell Brad

Don't tell Brad I told you this because he is SUPER embarrassed ... Last Saturday he was trying to fix a problem we're having with our phone lines on the main level of our house. He was checking relays, etc. and needed to get up on the roof. He crawled up on his ladder and was about to step on to the roof, when the ladder completely slipped out from under him. His first thought was, "Oh no, I didn't make it on to the roof!" Followed quickly by his second thought, "OH NO, THIS IS GOING TO HURT!!!" He fell nearly 10 feet on to the concrete and the ladder on his right side. Kate was in the kitchen mopping the floor and I was upstairs working on my YW lesson. I just heard her howl "DADDY!" in that awful, 'something is really wrong' tone of voice you hate to hear. I flew down the stairs yelling "what happened? what happened?" All I could hear was a wild wail of fear and "Daddy, daddy, daddy!" I got outside to find him doubled over and hardly able to breathe (the fall completely knocked the wind out of him) and white as a ghost. After an eternity he started to breathe again and we started to take stock of his injuries. His right leg felt weird and disconnected, and he couldn't put much weight on it. I talked him in to going to the emergency room, just to be sure no permanent damage or hidden injuries were lurking. He was SO embarrassed, because, in a small town you know everyone and everyone knows you! We literally knew all but one person on staff at the emergency room that afternoon. Not his proudest moment having to recount the afternoon's events to them! I was relieved to learn that his leg was not cracked, just deeply bruised. We did figure out, though, as time passed, that he had definitely broken some ribs. The pain was a little late in registering, but progressively got worse as the hours passed. He has been one sore guy! Breathing is not fun, and laughing, coughing, and sneezing about bring to his knees. I feel so sorry for him! But in true Brad form, he hasn't slowed down one bit -- he even got up Sunday morning for his early meetings (even though the Bishopric gave him a pass the night before). He is Frederic, a slave of duty, if there ever was one (hats off to Gilbert and Sullivan!). I've begged him to come home from work a little early every day this week, and tonight when he walked in the door at 5:57 he said, "Hey, I got home a little early today!" WHATEVER!

Oh. My. Gosh.

The craziest thing happened to me tonight while I was driving to Burley for Jr. Miss practice. My friend Amber was in the passenger seat and Kate and Amber's daughter, Sadie were in the back seat. The weather turned nasty all of a sudden and a microburst blew through. We just happened to be on the highway between Rupert and Heyburn as it passed over us. The wind was blowing SO hard and giants sheets of rain completely obscured the road. We were kind of floating back and forth on these massive waves of water. It felt so strange. Then the lightening started -- GIANT, bright, and CLOSE. About 50 feet to the side of the highway we saw a huge flash of light, then the power pole to the side of us fell down over the train tracks! That started a little domino effect as 3 or 4 more power poles came down one after the other. Each topple was followed by a big splash of sparks and fire. It was so surreal that I couldn't do anything except say "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh" every time another pole came down. I didn't even think about slowing down in case the poles kept falling and eventually crashed down on the road! I am ridiculous in an emergency. It honestly took me over a half an hour to process how weird and dangerous the whole situation was. Thankfully we're all safe and sound -- and one exciting story richer!